The health food retailer and Whole Foods rival Planet Organic has become the latest company to bemoan a rise in shoplifting at its stores. And in a trend that seems to be picking up steam, the group’s CEO is pointing the finger at the sketchy ethical code of its wealthy regulars.
Planet Organic, a pricey London supermarket chain, is staring down a £900,000 ($1.2 million) theft bill at its nine stores across London.
Speaking to the BBC, exasperated Planet Organic boss Richard Fowler said there are three types of shoplifters contributing to the company’s nearly £1 million theft losses.
Two of those were the “homeless,” as well as the “opportunist” shoplifter who will drop an item into their bag when they think no one can see, Fowler said.
“Then we have what I would call the Posh Totty people. They shop in Planet Organic on a daily basis, they spend a lot of money with our business,” he added.
Fowler described their thought process as: "Today I'm a little bit short of money, so I'm entitled to steal something."
Shoplifting on the rise
Shoplifting has risen in frequency since the cost-of-living crisis took a toll on shoppers’ incomes. A rise in self-checkouts at the expense of cashiers has also increased opportunities to slip some items past retailers.
The boss of the Dutch supermarket Jumbo said he would spend more on security as the company logged a €100 million ($110 million) loss from theft, a figure that exceeded its annual profits.
“We often catch people not scanning products, or not paying at the cash register,” Jumbo CEO Ton van Veen said.
“People are becoming increasingly sophisticated in not paying for products. You sometimes fall over in shock to witness how creative people are to take products without paying.”
Cashier-free checkouts were ironically introduced to cut multi-million dollar retailers' costs.
The cost of living crisis is also widely regarded as a key reason for decades-high levels of shoplifting, with inflation soaring into double digits between the end of 2022 and the start of 2023.
However, the typical Planet Organic shopper isn’t likely to be that hard up. The shop promotes itself as an upmarket artisanal grocery store selling only organic produce at a premium.
Planet Organic has placed itself in London’s most affluent areas, like Hampstead, Chiswick, and Ealing, or the most trendy locales, such as the North London borough of Islington and Hackney’s Broadway Market.
There isn’t data on the wealth profile of those shoppers. However, research by analytics firm Numerator of shoppers at Planet Organic’s rival Whole Foods found its typical shopper was a 29-year-old woman from the U.S. making $80,000 a year.
The phenomenon of the wealthy shoplifter isn’t new.
In November last year, Marks & Spencer chairman Archie Norman decried an increase in shoplifting in his stores driven by its target customers.
Norman echoed Planet Organic’s Fowler’s sentiment that middle-class shoppers felt they were owed the occasional product for free thanks to their loyalty at the store.
“With the reduction of service you get in a lot of shops, a lot of people think ‘well, this didn’t scan properly, or it’s very difficult to scan these things through and I shop here all the time. It’s not my fault, I’m owed it.’ You see it with the self-checkouts,” Norman said.
